A blog for fans of intelligent horror in fiction and film. Look here for reviews, analysis, and practical information on how to deal with demons and live with the living dead.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Hobbituary

If you were fortunate enough to
have watched The Hobbit two thirds of
the way through and then suffered a medical emergency, you would have seen a
very good movie.Fortunately, Peter
Jackson seems to have found resources to draw upon when crafting his portrait
of Middle Earth.Everything that happens
in the Shire is good enough.Ian
McKellen is so very good as Gandalf that one suspects that J.R.R. invented
him.Martin Freeman presents us with a
compelling Bilbo Baggins.If ever I read
The Hobbit again, imagination will not have to labor at the faces.

The story develops well and the
familiar parts of it early on remain familiar.A lot of the Trilogy is read back into the story and that is quite
proper.Tolkien himself effectively
rewrote the original work by his later magnum opus.I loved the scenes in Rivendell.They even called it Imladris at one point.Elrond and Galadriel were worth the entire production cost.

Also excellent was Bilbo’s
encounter with Gollum.If you have read
the books and watched Jackson’s Trilogy, you have to have special section of
your heart reserved for Sméagol.This
poor creature, whose soul is torn apart by the corruption of the Enemy’s Ring,
who nonetheless never entirely loses his better self, is something to be feared
and pitied.There but for the grace of
God…

Unfortunately, Peter Jackson is
still Peter Jackson.Most of the last
third of the film was taken up by the main characters hanging on to something
as they fell.In other words, it turned
into King Kong.The characters cling to rock ledges as
Godzilla-sized rock monsters battle.They cling to bridges as the bridges fall, endlessly, down canyons.In scenes that would shame a Buster Keaton film
festival, our heroes always manage to keep on the right platform and land
safely while an army of goblins always falls off just in time.Even when they are out of the goblin caverns,
they get chased into falling trees and the action goes on and on.It is as if Jackson were somehow addicted to
this ridiculous action trick and held off as long as he could; but once he got
started he couldn’t stop.

I really wanted The Hobbit to
be what it should have been.It was, for
a good bit.Unfortunately, I didn’t go
into shock in time.Please don’t let the
rest of this thing be as absurd.